


Covert Marriage

by mochegato



Series: Covert Jasonette [4]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Maribat - Fandom, Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Jasonette, Secret Wedding Reveal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-08
Updated: 2020-09-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:21:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26361853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mochegato/pseuds/mochegato
Summary: After their sudden elopement, Marinette and Jason return to Paris to reveal their marriage to her family and friends.
Relationships: Alya Césaire & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug's Parents, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug/Jason Todd
Series: Covert Jasonette [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1908970
Comments: 11
Kudos: 264





	Covert Marriage

“Okay… are you ready for this?” Before Jason could respond, Marinette continued her decent into rambling madness. “Am I ready for this? Oh God, I’m not ready for this. _We_ are not ready for this. This is going to be terrible. They’re going to hate me and kick me out and I’ll be homeless. Homeless, Jason, homeless!” Jason gave her a bemused smile and grabbed her hand with his free hand, his other hand loosely gripping the rental car’s steering wheel. She had been catastrophizing over telling her parents about their sudden elopement on and off for the last few weeks, ever since they got back to Gotham from their wedding. 

“Pixie, Love, Light of my Life, we have our own apartment and you’re already making it into a beautiful home. You won’t be homeless. And they won’t hate you. They love you. They will still love you after this,” he assured her. Marinette looked at him doubtfully, her mind still racing with all the terrible possibilities her anxiety had convinced her were inevitable.

He knew somewhere in her mind she knew he was right and he would be more concerned about the reveal of their marriage to her parents if she hadn’t reassured him on multiple occasions, after she had calmed down from her panic attack, that it would be fine, really. Her parents were amazing and they might be surprised and maybe a bit disappointed, but they would still love her and they would welcome him with open arms… eventually. So, he let her panic run its course for the time being, with only minor interference to keep it from going too dark, and instead focused on the road ahead of them, occasionally squeezing her hand to offer silent support.

Marinette looked down at their hands with a small smile before her eyes widened in horror, “Oh my God, my ring! They’re going to know as soon as they see the ring. I should… we shouldn’t… You know what? We should ease them into this instead. We should… You should be my boyfriend first. Yeah! I should take off my ring so they… so it will all be okay. They can meet you as my boyfriend first… or just a friend. Maybe you can walk by and we can pretend we are meeting for the first time? We can tell them about the marriage in a year or two… we’ll have to have a second ceremony, but that should be fine. We just have to let your family know not to mention anything whenever they finally meet. We’ll have to sedate Dick, but that’s for the best for everyone really. How long do you think we can keep him sedated before causing permanent damage?”

Jason laughed before giving her a gentle look, “Marinette, no. As much as I love the idea of tranquing Dick, it will all be okay. Please don’t take your ring off. Your parents would be more upset if they found out you lied to them and especially if everyone but them knew,” he said calmly trying to reason with her. “They love you. They can handle this. So can we. We will be fine, Pix. And I will be there right next to you the whole time, yeah?”

“Yeah?” she gave him an uncertain look.

“Yeah,” he said running his finger along her cheek with his free hand. “Come on, you’ve taken on a city full of zombies. You can handle this.”

She gave him a firm smile, “Right. We can do this. We’re a team. We can handle anything. Okay, recon report: Sabine Cheng and Tom Dupain. Marital status, married… to each other. Occupation, bakers who own their own business, a very popular boulangerie and patisserie in Paris. One child, a daughter currently in this rental car with you, who got married to you without their knowledge. Age, you don’t need to know. 

“Psych work up, Sabine has a glare that would put Batman to shame and although capable of messing you up, she won’t actually, physically hurt you. She may make a vague threat on what she will do to you if you hurt me and she’ll make you feel like you disappointed her, which… which is worse honestly. But, after everything she will give an amazing hug to make you feel better and offer you food and something to drink casually mentioning that you are part of the family after all. 

“Tom looks like he could crush you with one arm but is actually less threatening than Batcow. He’ll follow Sabine’s judgement, but he is likely to scowl at you until he decides for himself. He will continue to be suspicious of you even after my Maman welcomes you to the family. If you talk about how you just want to make sure I’m happy and feel loved, it will ease his suspicions. If you add in that you really want to start a family with me someday but you want to make sure I’m in a place where I feel like I’m ready and you’re letting me take the lead on the decision, he will start calling you ‘son’. After he accepts you into the family, he will cry. Brace for it now.”

Jason took his eyes from the road to look at her quizzically before shaking his head with a chuckle. “You’re not allowed to hang out with Tim anymore.”

Marinette rolled her eyes, “yeah, I’ll be sure to tell him that when we’re hanging out next week. It might delay it by a whole hour… because he’ll be laughing so hard.”

Jason shook his head and looked at her in fake severity, “I’m serious. It’s too dangerous to allow you two to hang out together. Your combined forces could take over the world.”

She smiled back at him, preening at his faith in her abilities. “Yeah, but a nice takeover, a benevolent tyranny, if you will.” Jason barked out a laugh and grinned at her.

“I can see it now. By royal proclamation, everyone must have a hamster, nobody is allowed to wear checks and stripes at the same time, peanut butter and jelly is strictly forbidden, and nobody wakes up before noon.”

She hummed in response, “Now that is a monarchy I can get behind. But my plans for world domination are going to have to wait. We’re here,” she said pointing to the corner store just ahead of them.

Marinette used her key to open the exterior door and led Jason up the back stairs to her parent’s apartment. 

“Okay, how do I look?” she asked nervously, her anxiety ramped up again now that they were outside her parents’ door.

“Like you’re trying to make it hard for me to focus on anything other than getting you back to the hotel,” he answered with a sultry look.

“Good, it wasn’t too subtle,” she gave him a wicked look. “Remember, you aren’t allowed to grab me while we’re in there.”

He growled at her and grabbed her tightly, “We’re not in there yet.” He gave her a deep kiss, pulling her flush against him.

She pulled away breathlessly and nodded at him with a resolute look on her face, “Okay, let’s do this.” She turned to knock on the door.

The door had barely opened before a huge man had reached out on the landing and grabbed Marinette in a bear hug. The man was so large, Jason couldn’t even see Marinette anymore. “Sweetheart! It is so great to see you. Oh! Who is this dear?”

“Papa, remember I said I was bringing someone for you to meet? This is Jason. Jason, these are my parents, Tom Dupain and Sabine Cheng,” she said indicating her father who was still holding her close and her mother who Jason couldn’t see behind Tom.

“Welcome to our home, Jason,” Tom said with a wide, welcoming smile.

“You might need to move so they can get in dear,” Sabine commented with a kind smile.

“Of course, of course. Sorry. Please come in,” he moved to the side and made a sweeping motion welcoming them into the apartment.”

“Thank you, sir. It is very nice to meet both of you. Marinette speaks of you often.” Jason shook Tom’s had with a big smile. As he went to shake Sabine’s hand he noticed her flick her eyes up to his eyes from wherever she had been looking, a glare settling in her eyes.

“Yes, welcome, Jason. Funny, Marinette hasn’t mentioned you at _all_.” She said coolly.

Jason chuckled awkwardly, “Huh… how about that… uh…” He floundered for what to say next, but Sabine’s glare never wavered. Her eyes bore into him like they could see every secret he had, even the ones he tried to hide from himself. Every self-doubt, every insecurity, every failing that haunted him was exposed. Everything Marinette had been helping him to recover from was suddenly laid out for Sabine to examine and judge. Jason stood paralyzed under her stare until Marinette grabbed him what seemed like hours later and pulled him away from her mother. 

“Come on, Jason. I’m dying to show you the view from my balcony. I’ve missed it so much since I’ve been away. You don’t mind, right Maman?” Marinette was pulling him up a set of stairs before her mother could give her “Of course not dear,” response.

Jason didn’t even take in what her childhood bedroom looked like before whipping around as soon as the door closed, “Okay you were right. Take off the ring, we’ll do it later.” He prompted her hurriedly motioning toward her hand. 

“Oh, it’s already too late. She’s seen the ring. We’re committed to it now,” Marinette said direly.

“What? Why would you wear the ring?” he asked exasperated.

She gave him a deadpan look, waiting for him to come to his own conclusion. 

“Why would you listen to me? You know better. And that glare! I feel like I’ve never done anything right in my entire life. How long was she glaring at me?”

“I think it was about 5 seconds before I could get to you,” she smiled sympathetically and cupped her hands around his face to stroke his cheeks. “She does that. It’ll be okay. I mean, I’m not going to lie it’s going to be really terrible for a little bit but then it’ll be like Miraculous Ladybug sweeping all the pain away. Also, it wasn’t my ring she saw.” She gave him a chaste kiss on the lips. “I love you, Jason Todd. They will too. They are scared for me right now because they don’t know you. But when they get to know you, they are going to be your biggest supporters, a second, and actually functioning, family for you.”

He let out a stressed sigh and pressed his forehead to hers. “I just don’t want to screw this up. And your mom is intimidating as hell.”

“You can’t screw this up. It isn’t possible. And yes, I know.” They heard Marinette’s mom calling to them that lunch was ready. “Relax. You’ve taken down crime lords, you can handle my parents.

“Something tells me I’m not allowed to just shoot _them_ though.” He muttered under his breath. Marinette gave him an unamused look as she made her way toward the door. “What? I said ‘ _not_ allowed’.”

“Lunch smells amazing Maman and Papa. I’ve missed your cooking so much! I’m going to have to rub this in Adrien’s face tonight. He says hi, by the way. He was planning on stopping over tomorrow if that is okay.”

“That’s nice, dear. He knows he’s always welcome. All of your _friends_ are,” she said pointedly, looking sharply over to Jason.

“Thank you so much for letting me tag along with Marinette. I am really glad to finally meet you after everything I’ve heard about you from her.” Jason tried to lighten the heavy mood with pleasantries, but Marinette’s mom was not following the lighter tone. She seemed to have perfected the art of a biting remark with a smile. She would do wonderfully at one of their Galas.

“Of course, sweetie. So, how did you two meet?”

“We meet at a coffee shop. We started talking and… here we are,” he faltered. They hadn’t actually discussed how they were going to tell her parents and he figured she would want to be the one to say it.

“Well, we are really glad to meet you. You must be really important to Marinette if she brought you home.” Tom offered only scowling slightly.

“He is Papa. He is really important to me,” she paused to take a deep breath and look to Jason who gave her an encouraging nod before reaching for her hand to entwine their fingers. “He is so important to me that we decided to get married a few weeks ago. We’re married. He’s my husband,” she said quietly holding up her left hand to show her ring. 

Tom sucked in a breath but Sabine’s eyes went steely. “I see,” she said in a deceptively calm voice.

“Sweetheart, are you… are you sure that was the wisest decision?” Tom hedged tentatively.

“I am, Papa. We know it was sudden and impulsive, but we know what we’re doing. It might not look like it, but we do. We love each other, but we know that isn’t enough,” she looked over to look into Jason’s loving eyes. “We know we are going to have to work at it and we are ready to do that.”

Marinette’s father opened his mouth but before he could say anything Jason continued where Marinette left off, “We know it is going to be hard at times and we’re not fully prepared for whatever is coming, but we are ready to fight for it, together. We want a future together. We want a family together, at some point, when Marinette is ready, little kids with Marinette’s eyes and creativity and my hair and determination, or my eyes and her smile,” his eyes softened as he spoke about their future children. Marinette grinned at the future children he pictured. They had never spoken about kids and it was warming her hear to hear his vision. 

“I know you’re worried about me and this was a huge surprise to spring on you out of nowhere and for that I am truly sorry, but… but you need to trust me that this is what is best for me.” Marinette added timidly.

Her parents looked at one another in silent conversation for a while before turning back to Marinette and Jason. Sabine reached across the table for Marinette’s hand, “Okay dear. If this makes you happy, then we are happy for you.” She was smiling at the two of them but the smile was cautious, uncertain.

“Welcome to the family, son,” Marinette’s papa said standing with a strained smile to give Jason another bone crushing hug. “We’re so glad to see our little girl happy again and if you were the one to do it, then we are beyond happy to have you in our lives.”

The lunch continued as Marinette’s parents asked questions about Jason and his history. After lunch they kept talking about Gotham and Marinette’s career and Jason’s family. A few hours later, Marinette and Jason were finally able to take a few moments for themselves to recover from the stress of the earlier reveal. They were enjoying the view from her balcony, Marinette was reveling in the feeling of Jason’s arms wrapped comfortingly around her and the steady rise and fall of his chest against her back as he breathed. “I don’t think I’d mind just staying here like this for the rest of the night,” she said quietly as she melted into his embrace.

Jason leaned down to kiss her temple. “It’s just your friends though, right? That one should be easier, shouldn’t it? Less stressful? Then we can go back to the hotel and just lay down wrapped up in each other’s arms for a while.”

Marinette winced slightly, “God that sounds amazing. Yeah, tonight should be less stressful but… you brought your Kevlar vest right? You might need it, Kim is going to be there.”

Jason chuckled lightly, “Sounds like my kind of people. I should fit right in.”

Marinette hummed at him “I think you…” before she could finish her sentence Sabine made her presence known. “Marinette, sweetie, your father wanted you to pick what you wanted to take over to Luka’s house.”

“Okay, Maman.” She looked over to Jason with a raised brow asking him if he was okay or if he wanted her to get him out as Sabine made her way onto the balcony. Jason smiled at her and nodded toward the door, reassuring her he would be fine. His wife’s mother wanted to have a talk with him and she deserved to have her say.

“I’ll be right back,” she said, looking at Jason to reassure him that she wouldn’t be gone long and giving him a kiss on the cheek.

Once she left, Jason looked to Sabine waiting for her to start the conversation. When she continued to silently watch the sun makes its way toward setting Jason started getting uncomfortable. Finally after a few minutes, Jason decided to break the awkward silence. “You have a beautiful view, Mrs. Cheng. A beautiful home as well.”

“Sabine, please. You’re a part of our family now after all,” she said kindly but with an edge to her voice.

“Sabine, thank you. And thank you for being so calm about this… about us. Marinette has been panicking about telling you since we got married. She is really terrified about disappointing you. I know this must have been a shock and hard to accept for you.”

“It is. You have to understand, it’s nothing personal, but she will always be our baby and we just want what’s best for her. This is an unknown, you are an unknown so we aren’t sure how to react yet.”

“I do understand. I don’t take it personally. And I fully understand wanting to protect Marinette. I’m not going to try to force you to like me. I’m just happy Marinette is happy and doesn’t feel like she disappointed you.”

Sabine watched him for a few moments. “I can see the way you two look at each other and I can see how much you two love each other. But I can see something else.” He raised his brow at her. “I can see the way you need each other. I want to make sure you aren’t just using each other.”

Jason sucked in a breath and glanced away. That was not the observation he had been expecting. He didn’t think either of them was that obvious about how they interacted. He looked back to her, impressed with her insight. “You’re very observant. We are using each other… but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. We both offer something the other needs. But neither of us is willing to take more than the other can give,” he reassured her. “And we really do love each other. We want the other to be better, to be happy. We rely on each other and we need each other but, isn’t that the way marriage is supposed to be? I mean, I don’t have very many models of a good marriage… or any, honestly, but that’s the way Marinette describes it. And that is what I want, a happy, healthy marriage. But more than that, I want her to be happy. I’m not going to do anything that will cause her more pain.”

Sabine’s eyes softened as she gazed at him. “I think she was right… about marriage and about you,” she reached up to pat him on his cheek. “I’m glad you found somebody who helps make you feel complete. I’m glad you both did. Do you mind if I give you a hug?”

Jason shook his head, too dazed to use words. “Here, let me just…” He knelt down so he was closer to her height, “There. That’s better.”

“Ah, I see it now.” She smiled as she hugged him with a gentle but firm hug, making him feel like he was welcome and accepted.

“What’s that?” he pulled back curiously.

“Why my daughter fell in love with you. She always did appreciate a smartass.” Jason barked out another laugh and hugged her again.

Marinette popped her head through the trapdoor. “Well that seemed to have gone well.”

“It did, sweetie. Now, you guys better hurry or you’re going to be late for your party. But I want you guys here for brunch tomorrow with the wedding pictures.” Sabine said with a smile, leaving the two to prepare for their next confrontation. “Oh, and dear?” she called back before disappearing through the trap door.

“Yes, Maman?”

“This family you guys want to start, I’m won’t be finding out about it after the child is born, right?” she asked with a calculating smile.

“No, Maman.”

“Jason?” she prompted him.

“No, Ma’am… uh, Sabine.”

“Good. Just making sure dear. Now, have fun tonight kids.” She said with saccharine sweetness.

<><><><><>

The party seemed to already be in full swing as Jason and Marinette approached Luka’s new houseboat. They could hear the music and laughter from a block away. “Just a quiet, little, friendly get together, huh?” he asked with a raised brow.

“Yep. Just like your quiet, little, friendly family dinners. It should be a familiar environment. You okay with it?”

“No, I mean, no, it isn’t a problem. I’m definitely not complaining. I like this better. More witnesses if someone does something.”

“That’s cute. You think we don’t cover for each other,” she gave him a wicked smile, dragging her finger along his jaw before walking ahead of him, swinging her hips for him.

“Oh, you’re in for it,” he laughed, running up behind her, picking her up, and throwing her over his shoulder without slowing down.

“Hey,” she squawked at him, laughing uncontrollably. “Let me down, you big goof.”

“Huh. Did you hear something?” he said confused spinning around and getting smacked by the bag of pastries she was carrying. “I could have sworn I heard something. Nope nothing there.”

“Jason!” Marinette called slapping his firm ass.

“Oh! There. I heard it again,” he grinned suddenly switching the direction he was spinning getting smacked by the bag on the other side.

“You are such an asshole. You’re going to ruin the pastries,” she laughed even harder.

“Ah, it must be my loving wife,” he said setting her down in front of him with a loving smile. “I would recognize that description of me anywhere.”

She huffed in mock annoyance at him, “Why do I put up with you?”

“Hmmm,” he hummed moving his face closer to hers and letting his hands roam up and down her sides, pleased with the contented sighs she let out. “My charm, my amazing personality, my devilishly good looks, I believe. Plus, I’m the only one who could survive the coming onslaught that is your friends.”

She smiled comfortingly at him, “Don’t worry, my friends are going to love you. I mean, don’t get me wrong, they’re going to threaten you, but after that, they’re going to love you.”

He rolled his eyes, “Why is it everyone you know is coming up and threatening me if I ever hurt you but everyone I know is… also coming up and threatening me if I ever hurt you?”

“Because they think I can’t defend myself,” she shrugged.

“Have you ever thought about telling them who you are? So they know you can defend yourself? I mean, not everyone but a few people you trust.”

“No, I don’t think it’s that.” She looked down to consider how to word her thoughts. “It’s… it’s how we deal with things. You lash out. I take it out on myself. Everything I do only affects myself. I withdraw from people and things, I lose my appetite, I get more tired, I lose my passion for things. Those things don’t affect anyone else, at least not directly. But you lash out. You yell, you hit, you get drunk and say cruel things, you try to hurt them as much as you’re hurting. It… the way we deal with things, makes me look weak and you look dangerous.”

He looked at her with sad eyes. She was right and he felt comforted knowing she knew him so well, but it also upset him that she was right. That is how he responds to negative things but he never wanted her to experience it firsthand. “I don’t ever want to do that to you. I won’t ever hurt you,” he promised sincerely.

“You will. And I’ll hurt you. We won’t mean to, but we will. But we’re going to talk about it, right? Instead of brooding or detaching? We promised... and we’re fucking adults and that’s what adults do.” He chuckled but nodded, hugging her closely as if protecting her from their future fights. He pulled away just far enough to press his forehead to hers. “I love you, wife.”

“I love you, husband,” she looked up at him adoringly, wrapping her hands around the back of his neck.

“WHAT THE FUCK DID I JUST HEAR?” they heard screamed from behind Jason.

Marinette and Jason froze, “Shit,” Marinette whispered out, peeking around Jason to see Alix standing close enough to have heard at least the last part of their conversation.

“You got married?” she exclaimed only slightly less loud this time. 

“Uh, yeah. This is Jason… my husband.” Marinette awkwardly indicated Jason.

“When did you get married?” Alix asked hugging Marinette and eyeing Jason suspiciously.

“A few weeks ago.”

“Does Alya know?” Marinette’s pained expression was enough of an answer for Alix. “Shit. Well it was nice I got to see you again before your funeral. Good luck. Hand over the pastries. I don’t want them destroyed in the mauling. I get to be there when you tell her, right?”

“I’m telling her as soon as I get there,” Marinette nodded as she handed over the bag she was holding.

“Sweet. I’m sticking by you. This party is going to be more interesting than I thought it was going to be. Does Sunshine know?”

“Yeah. He was there… Don’t tell Alya that part,” Marinette added quickly.

“Oh God no. Two murders is enough for tonight. Well, let’s get to it. I’d like to dig into these pastries and get some drinking done tonight.”

“Thank you, Alix. It’s good to see you. What have you been up to?” They chatted amicably as they walked toward the boat. Marinette’s hand held tightly to Jason’s as she walked. She looked over her shoulder, giving him a tight lipped smile, betraying her nerves. A few friends called to her from the boat as she got close. She waved and called back to them with a genuine smile. As soon as she stepped foot on the deck there was a rush of people each trying to give her hugs and find out about her life in Gotham.

“Back off everyone. She needs to breathe,” Alix yelled at the crowd, causing them to back up a bit.

“Thanks,” Marinette whispered to her, smiling consolingly at her friends.

“And she needs to make an announcement,” Alix decreed with an evil smile.

“Bitch!” Marinette hissed at her.

“You reap what you sow. Shouldn’t have snuck off.” Alix smirked at her.

“I was supposed to tell Alya first,” she hissed through her teeth.

“Ohhh, yeah. Good point. My bad. Oh well, too late now,” Alix shrugged and stepped back so Marinette could take center stage.

Jason stepped up behind her and wrapped his hand around her waist to let her know he was there for her. She took a deep breath and gave a fake smile to her friends. “Everyone, I’d like to introduce you to Jason Todd… my husband.”

Everyone stared at them slack jawed for a few moments. The boat was so quiet they could hear the water slapping against the bow. Finally the quiet was broken by Adrien squeezing through and hugging Marinette and shaking Jason’s hand, “Good to see you guys! How are your parents? Jason, I’m so glad you made it. Max over there was just saying Shakespeare was overrated. We need your expertise, man. Well, no what I actually need is someone who knows what the fuck their talking about to destroy him.”

Marinette smiled gratefully at Adrien who just winked in response. “Go savage, man. Let the heathen have it,” Adrien encouraged, slinging his arm over Jason’s shoulders and gesturing to a man in glasses in front of them. Jason looked back to Marinette for confirmation. She nodded to him with a wry smile and leaned over to Alya who had finally made her way over to Marinette, “Watch this.” She grinned proudly as Jason proceeded to give a solid 5 minute literary critique of Shakespeare’s works, the prevalence of the themes he wrote about, and the effect he had not only on his time but on future writers.

“He’s passionate about Shakespeare.” Alya observed.

“Yeah. Our place is filled with classic literature. You should see him talk about Jane Austin,” Marinette looked down to her hands for a moment before softly saying, “I’m sorry, Alya. I wanted to tell you first, in person. It was very sudden.”

Alya nodded. “Does he make you happy?”

“Yes, very,” she nodded vigorously. “He makes me feel… again.” She looked over at Alya uncertainly.

Alya nodded again and looked away as Jason returned with a grin. “How did that feel?” Marinette asked with a knowing smile.

“That was awesome. I never get to geek out like that.” He said hugging her. “You must be Alya,” he held out his hand. “Marinette talks about you constantly. I feel like I know so much about you already.”

“So how did you meet? When did you know you needed to get married?” Alya nodded her head in acknowledgement as Kagami joined them.

“We met when she kicked someone’s ass and I knew I needed to marry her when she handed Batman’s ass to him in a verbal smack down for the ages after he interrupted our date.” He grinned proudly down at Marinette.

“Marinette!” Kagami chastised her as Alya smacked her in the chest.

“It was the second time our date had been interrupted! I was pissed. And he tried to pull that glare on me like I did something wrong.” Marinette defended herself.

“Ooh, that was a mistake.” Alya shook her head with a laugh.

“I know, right?”

“Marinette, can I speak with you a bit more privately? I have some concerns I’d like to address with you.” Kagami spoke sharply looking only at Marinette.

Marinette looked between Jason and Alya and for the second time they had a silent conversation about if he was okay with being left alone. He nodded to her and motioned for her to follow her friend.

As soon as they were out of earshot Alya started her shovel talk, staring directly in his eyes. “You understand that you are an exceptionally lucky man and you will never meet anyone as amazing as her again, right?”

“I do.” He nodded sincerely.

“And if you ever hurt her, there will be no place to hide.”

“I understand.”

Alya nodded at him but her eyes didn’t soften. “Okay. My girl has been miserable for a really long time. None of us know what caused it except Adrien, but we have our suspicions. She hasn’t allowed herself to feel anything, good or bad in years. But she finally looks happy. With you in her life, she finally seems back to her old self so…”

“So?”

Alya squinted at him and pursed her lips, “So, I will allow it. I will allow you to stay married to her. But if that changes, if she becomes suddenly unhappy, they will never find the body, understood?”

“Understood,” he nodded at her. “And just so you know, I think there’s a line now. I think you’re after Sabine, Adrien, and Fang, not to mention several members of my family.”

“Oh no, we work together. I do the tool supplying, Kagami does the killing, Sabine does the cutting up, Adrien does the feeding, Fang does the eating, Kim does the alibiing, and Max does the cover up. If your family wants to get involved, we can assign jobs.”

Jason looked at her curiously, “Should I be concerned that you seem to have thought this through?”

“Not if you treat her right.” Alya gave him a pointed look.

“Which one is Kagami? I don’t think I’ve seen her yet.” He scanned the crowd.

“That’s her skill. You won’t see her coming,” she sent him a devilish smile before pointing to a woman leaning against the balcony railing having a serious conversation with Marinette, “Kagami was the one that was over here earlier, the one that currently is interrogating Marinette. You’re lucky I’m the one doing this and not her. She still might actually, but she should know I’ve already done it. I’m higher in the hierarchy.”

“There’s a hierarchy?” he looked at her with a raised brow.

“You think you’re the first one to get this talk? We protect our friends and we all know who gets to give the talk to who’s significant other and who is second up in case that person is unavailable. In most of these scenarios, Marinette is the one doing the digging. We don’t usually have the option of Fang. You didn’t wet your pants so you’re doing better than most of the significant others.”

“Thanks. Have you ever had to enact it?”

“Not that anyone has been able to prove.” She shot him a finger gun and a wink.

“Hey, new guy! You look like you’re in shape. You’re getting in on this, come on.” A large man with frosted tips tugged him to one of the ship’s two masts. Jason looked back at Alya who just gave him a thumbs up. “It’s a race to the top. Whoever sits on their mast first gets a prize.” The man announced excitedly.

“What’s the prize?”

“If you win, we let you stay married to my little sister.”

“I’m not your sister,” Marinette yelled from her spot at the railing.

“She says such hurtful things,” Kim mock whispered to Jason, his hand held sadly against his chest. “If I win, you buy the alcohol at the next party.” Jason nodded at him and looked over to Marinette with a wink.

“Winning this one for you, Pixie.” He gave her a dashing grin and a wink.

“Show ‘em what you got, Red. Mulan that bitch.” Marinette yelled back.

Marinette looked over as Adrien threw his arm around her shoulder, eyeing him suspiciously, “Hey, awfully convenient you guys were talking about Shakespeare when we got here.”

“Awfully wasn’t it. Couldn’t get Max talking about anything else.” Adrien shrugged with a false nonchalance.

“Right, classic lit. Max’s favorite subject,” she rolled her eyes. “Thank you.”

He gave her a tight side hug. “Don’t know what you’re talking about, Bug.” He shifted his focus to the center of the boat as Jason and Kim’s race started. He soon doubled over laughing as Kim slipped and fell from about half way up the mast all the way back to the deck, landing on his ass with a thump, followed almost immediately by Jason losing his footing and smacking his face against the mast but managing to keep his lead. “You married that. That’s yours now. You own that.”

“Yeah, but have you seen him without his shirt on?” he shook his head. She looked back with adoring eyes and a wicked smile at her amazing husband, engaging in dumbass challenges with her friends, “Worth it.”


End file.
